The Fiat 500c Abarth: A topless Italian that bites

Get your mind out of the gutter.

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Does putting a cloth roof on Fiat's little scorpion take away the sting? Nope. The 2013 Fiat 500c Abarth accomplishes its mission without detracting from
the stuff that makes the Abarth special. The signature raspy exhaust note is amplified, the fresh air is maximized, and your sunscreen's SPF becomes a
legitimate consideration. The 500's sliding-roof is more conducive to spur-of-the-moment use than many traditional convertible tops.

The 500c Abarth has a bit of a Jeckyll-and-Hyde thing going on, and it's all controlled by the "Sport" button. When disengaged, the car feels pretty
disappointing: there's a terrible 1-2 shift lurch, vague overboosted steering, and almost unrelenting turbo lag. Pressing "Sport" however, transforms the
Abarth into an interactive, zippy, and aggressive little beastie.

In sport mode, through the canyons around Mulholland, the Abarth proved a willing fiend for apexing corners. Give the little bugger credit: its little SOHC
1.4-liter hung in with the infinitely brawnier Grand Cherokee SRT piloted by a member of the Fiat team. The Fiat is certainly nimble, but there's still
enough understeer baked in that you need to be mindful of it because the transition from grip to slip is unexpected. The brakes were fade free throughout
my two hours of canyon time, and abrupt slowdowns give the added benefit of spontaneous, almost anti-lag level pops and backfires from the exhaust.

The 500c Abarth is one of the purer examples of slow-car-fast, but it's not without its issues. The seating position is anything but confidence inspiring
especially if you are going down a significant grade, and the pedals aren't optimized for aggressive shifting in that they have illogically long travel
with no perceivable benefit to modulation. The shift lever may be the most ridiculous and least ergonomic available in any car right now (it's like a
cowhide-covered mutant gourd) and the 5-speed manual kept hanging up on 5-4 and 3-2 downshifts for no apparent reason.

Yet, with all that said, I like the car. Such are the effects of its charms versus the annoyances. .Compared to other small convertibles, the 500c Abarth
feels less disconnected fore and aft, has less infernal wind noise with the top down, and the fabric roof can be raised and lowered at up to 60 mph. You
can't get T-tops anymore and to my thinking cars are all the worse for it. But this may be the next best thing.

It's not a style-only sunbather-special like the old VW cabrio. 170 lb./ft. of torque yank sees to that. Still, there's something about the way the ragtop
Abarth drives that makes it feel like a 7/10ths car. The basic goodness is there, but it's hard to shake the impression that the Fiat 500c Abarth is
perpetually engaged in a battle to be better than the sum of its parts.